Groundwork: From Discovery to Stakeholder Design

In the earlier phases, we surface the cultural landscape through a discovery process that orients leadership to view culture as a strategic operating system. We then map and classify stakeholders, identifying which expectations are materially significant and aligning internal objectives accordingly. The result is a clearly defined Target Culture—a future-facing cultural blueprint grounded in stakeholder legitimacy, not heuristic desire. This culture includes not only behavioural and identity norms, but also embedded attitudes toward ethics, the environment, and social responsibility.

 

Culture as a Systemic Diagnostic, Not Sentiment

This assessment phase shifts from defining culture to diagnosing it. We treat culture as a structured, interdependent system—comprising beliefs, norms, language, behaviours, symbols, social structures, knowledge, and heritage. Each domain is assessed for its structural relevance to business outcomes, stakeholder expectations, and broader sustainability priorities, including environmental stewardship and ethical conduct.

 

Target Culture becomes the benchmark. We now ask: How closely does the actual, lived culture reflect this intent? Where are the cracks, contradictions, and untapped strengths?

 

Ethnographic Intelligence Across the Organization

We deploy field diagnostics—immersion, interviews, document audits, and social network mapping—across all levels of the organization. The analysis cascades from group corporate through divisions, companies, departments, and finally to operational cells.

 

At each level, we evaluate eight cultural elements through four lenses:

• Visibility: Is the cultural element observable?

• Alignment: Does it reinforce or contradict the Target Culture?

• Consistency: Is it uniform or fragmented across units?

• Impact: Does it enable or hinder strategic execution?

 

Crucially, these elements often surface embedded views on fairness, ethics, and the environment. For example, how teams respond to green policies, or whether environmental impact is viewed as part of day-to-day decision-making, can reveal deeper cultural truths.

 

Unlike conventional models, we do not stop at the organizational boundary. When we reach the cell level, we go deeper—into employee personal cultures and the social fabric of surrounding communities. These are not externalities; they are leverage points for fostering belonging, motivation, and loyalty.

 

From Cultural Gap to Organizational Intelligence

We compare Target vs. Actual across each element, generating a Cultural Gap Map that reveals coherence or dissonance. Subcultures are assessed—not eliminated. Some reinforce strategic agility, others indicate risk. Each misalignment is traced to its source, whether structural, behavioural, or leadership-driven.

 

This is not a symbolic exercise. It is an intelligence layer that feeds into governance, HR, ESG, and operational decision-making—linking culture directly to reputational trust, ethical practice, and environmental responsibility.

 

Delivering the Cultural Sustainability Rating

All insights culminate in a Cultural Sustainability Rating—a structured, data-informed index of cultural health and stakeholder alignment. Unlike pulse scores or engagement metrics, this rating measures coherence, material relevance, and strategic fitness across dimensions including ethics, environmental attitudes, and social context.

 

It allows boards, executives, and investors to see culture not as an abstract value—but as a measurable asset driving long-term resilience.

 

By transforming culture from narrative into system, and from system into rating, we close the loop between what the organization says, what it does, and what stakeholders experience—across social, environmental, and ethical dimensions.